Diet Tips Individuals Over 40 Need To Know To Boost Their Fitness Success

As you start to get older, if you want to maintain or improve your current physique, focusing on your dietary choices is going to become more and more important.

It’s no secret that many people do often suffer from weight gain as the years go by, but if you can figure out a good over 40 diet to start using, then this doesn’t have to be the case.

Along with doing a properly planned workout program, taking the steps to make sure that each meal and snack that you consume is nutritionally sound is definitely going to go a long way towards bringing you the results that you’re looking for.

Let’s go over a few of the most important things to know about creating an over 40 diet plan.

Get Your Calorie Intake In Check

Far too many women have a tendency to really back off on their total calorie intake for fear that it’ll cause them to gain body fat.

What you must remember however is the fact that if you’re not consuming enough calories, that can actually work directly against you as the body will begin to conserve any calories that are coming in and be more likely to store them as additional body fat.

Ideally you want a lower calorie intake, but one that isn’t too low and still provides plenty of the vital nutrients the body needs.

Women over 40 should aim for around 13-14 calories per pound of body weight if they’re moderately active and males should aim slightly higher, around 14-15 calories per pound.

By getting your calorie intake in check you’ll find you have more energy to get through the day and complete any workouts that you have scheduled.

Favor Protein Over All Other Foods

Another very important thing to note is that you’ll want to make sure that you aren’t consuming too little protein. This is a very big mistake but again, one that often occurs when individuals are afraid of gaining body fat.

Protein rich foods are especially important for an over 40 diet because it is at this point when you are more likely to experience lean muscle mass loss.

By getting more protein, you’ll prevent this. You should be trying to include at least one gram of protein per day, possibly even a bit more if you are using a lower calorie diet plan or are very active.

The top protein sources that you can choose from to get this intake up higher include chicken and turkey breast meat, lean red meat, egg whites, fish, as well as low fat dairy products.

The protein from low fat dairy products is especially important to have in your diet plan because it’s a casein variety, which means it breaks down more slowly and to add to that, those who include more dairy protein in their diet tend to show accelerated rates of abdominal fat loss.

Furthermore, eating plenty of dairy in your diet will also help ensure that you’re getting all the calcium in that you need in order to promote strong bones, so you’ll get that added benefit as well.

Get High Anti-Oxidant Rich Foods Regularly

The third thing to focus on when designing an over 40 diet is making sure that you get in plenty of anti-oxidant rich foods regularly.

Since many individuals in their later ages are at a slightly increased risk of suffering from disease, by taking in these anti-oxidant packed foods regularly, they’ll help to fend off any free radical damage.

All forms of berries are some of the best anti-oxidant rich foods out there so these are the ones that you really want to put a large focus on. In addition to that, get a high intake of vegetables as well, as these will not only provide anti-oxidants but plenty of vitamins and minerals in addition to that.

Don’t Go To Extremes

The next thing to note when creating diets for women over 40 or in some cases those for men as well is that you should never go to the extremes.

There are so many crash diets out there that far too many people are still falling prey to them. Especially as you reach forty and beyond, you may find that you’re feeling desperate to try anything to get the excess weight you’re carrying off.

The problem with these extreme approaches is that not only are they very unlikely to produce any type of lasting weight loss results, but in addition to that they’re also going to place a very high degree of stress on the body.

Since maintaining good health right now as you move into your 40’s and beyond is absolutely imperative and likely the largest focus you have, you don’t want to do anything that could put this in jeopardy.

Those crash diets are going to do just that.

Instead, always seek out a much more balanced approach that includes foods from all the major food groups while keeping your total calorie intake under control.

A more moderate plan that promotes slower rates of weight loss but weight loss that you can sustain will be far superior to any fast diet plan that causes you to yo-yo up and down with your body weight.

So there you have the top tips to remember when designing a diet plan to follow.

Do try and take the time to learn the basic nutritional concepts that go into promoting maximum health and getting the body to burn off body fat all day long so you become resistant to fat gain. It’s one of the best things that you can do to promote long-term wellness.

For more help and information on these concepts, please check out The Diet Solution Program. It’s specifically designed to help build you a customized diet to meet your own individual requirements.